


Best Served Cold

by AllTrekkedUp



Category: Adam-12
Genre: Gen, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-14 15:43:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16495568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTrekkedUp/pseuds/AllTrekkedUp
Summary: This is kind of a tag to the episode "The Search".  Or perhaps just me working out 'what ifs'.





	Best Served Cold

When the word came into the station that Adam 12 was missing it spread like a wildfire. Everyone was on edge, figuratively holding their breath for news, everyone except a young mechanic named Craig Harrison.

He was working on a black and white when someone asked him if he had heard and he nodded as he was tinkering under the hood, but he also smiled. This was it. What he had been planning on, what he had been thinking about for years, it was what he was living for.

Only that feeling of satisfaction didn't last long. Craig soon heard that Malloy and Adam 12 was missing, Reed had gotten out of the car before the chase had began. He slammed the hood down hard, face red with anger, how could this happen?! How in the hell could this happen?! Oh sure, he wanted Malloy to get hurt, maybe even killed but that didn't mean as much to him as Reed's death did. It had been Reed afterall who had hurt him, who had damaged his family beyond repair, his father was now a drunkard, his mother depressed. All because of Reed. Now after all of his planning, becoming a police mechanic, getting to work at the same division where Reed was and waiting till the right time to sabotage Reed and Malloy's unit. Reed was still out there, fit as a fiddle, and Malloy was probably dead in a ditch somewhere. It wasn't fair! 

After pacing back and forth a few minutes Craig resolved to kill Reed personally. He had planned so that it could be pawned off on the car by cutting the brake line, but since that had failed he would simply have to do it the old fashioned way.

OoO

While trying to find Pete had made Jim anxious, worried and angry, waiting on word at the hospital was almost as bad. He sat, hands balled into fists as Mac made phone calls, Pete was in surgery, they were taking out his ruptured spleen. When the doctor came out and told them he would be alright in the long run they breathed a sigh of relief. He was in recovery and they could see him soon, the night turned into morning by the time they did, Pete was still pretty out of it but they talked to him a little bit before leaving. There were still reports to be written at the station and Jim certainly wanted to get his done and go home and rest a while before going back to see Pete.

It was almost mid morning by the time Jim had changed and was heading to his car to go home. He stopped to get his keys out of his pocket when he felt someone behind him and turned quickly, it was a young man with a wild look in his eyes and swinging a large wrench at Jim's head. Jim put up his arm to block it and it hit the arm with force, he could hear as well as feel the break. He reach out for the wrench with his good arm as the man was going to hit him again, Woods and Brinkman were coming back to their unit after bringing a 2-11 suspect to the station, they came to his aid.

They ran and grabbed the man by his arms as he fought them like a wild animal, Jim was stunned clenching his right arm. 

"Let me go! I gotta kill him! I have too!" the man kept repeating.

"Just calm down buddy! There will be no killing of Jim or anybody else," Woods said strongly.

"But I have waited to kill him for years!" he said.

"I don't even know you," Jim said. His heart was pounding still, the pain hadn't hit him yet.

"Oh yes you do! You killed my little brother! But I guess you've killed lots of boys since then, does the name Harrison mean anything to you?" 

Jim looked at him a moment thinking, but then it dawned on him and and his mouth came open. It was at this time the pain caught up with him and feeling sick he sank down right where he was standing.

"If only you had been in that car with your partner! Maybe you would be dead!" Craig spat.

"You damage Adam 12?" Brinkman asked.

Craig seemed to recover from his outburst and calm down. "I ain't saying nothing without a lawyer!" he proclaimed. 

"Just sit tight, Jim," Jerry said. He and Brinkman lead Harrison into the station.

Mac came out to Jim and and took him to the hospital himself as Jim insisted he didn't need nor did he want an ambulance. Jim was very quiet on the way there which Mac attributed to pain but that was only in part. Jim was thinking about the shooting several years ago, that had lead to this moment and from the way it was looking, lead to Pete's injuries as well.

For the second time in so many hours Mac and Jim were back at Central Receiving. In between x-rays and a cast Jim called Jean to let her know what had happened and that he would be home soon as he could and not to worry. When Jim got his cast, they left the little exam room in emergency and started going down the hall.

"Do you feel like looking in on Pete before we go?" Mac asked.

"I don't know...I don't think so..." Jim said.

Mac could sense something was wrong in Jim's voice, he touched his arm so he would stop walking. "Hey, you're not really trying to blame yourself for this are you?"

"It is my fault, Mac," Jim said matter-of-factly.

"It is no more your fault than it is mine," Mac said.

"When I think of a way to apologize to Pete I will talk to him, but until then I just want to go home," Jim said. He said it in a way that made it the end of the discussion.

Mac knew there was no sense in arguing with Jim about this right now, so he took him home. 

OoO

The next afternoon Mac dropped in on Pete to see how he was, when he entered the room he saw Pete awake but he didn't look too happy. "Please tell me you've come to get me out of this place?" Pete asked. He had an IV in his left arm and his tone indicated he was annoyed and he looked a heck of a lot better than he did the day before. Mac smiled. "I take it your feeling better then?" he asked. "I am okay. I would rather be at home in bed," Pete said. "And the pain?" Mac asked. "Hurts like hell on the Fourth of July." "That's why you're so grouchy. I think you had better stay here and just do what the doctor's say, the next thing you'll be asking me is when you can get back on the streets," Mac said. "Well I would rather be out there than in here," Pete said. "I know" "Where's Jim? I would like to thank him for not giving up on the park," Pete said. "Well, there's a story to that. You see, one of the mechanics in the garage sabotaged your unit. He confessed sometime last night," Mac informed. "What?" Pete asked, shocked and confused. "His name is Craig Harrison. It seems he wanted to kill you both by cutting the brake line and messing with the radio, he was however targeting Jim. He is the brother to that boy Jim killed several years ago, when you two were fired at on patrol," Mac said. "Oh yes. I'll never forget that," Pete said remembering. Face grime at the thoughts. "The only reason we caught him so quickly is that when he found out only you had been hurt he came at Jim with a wrench at the station. Broke his arm," Mac said. "My God!" Pete said. "He is taking this pretty hard. He blames himself for what happened to you, said he couldn't face you until he thought of a way to apologize," Mac explained. "Knowing Jim he would feel that way. But it's senseless to think like that, I need to talk to him," Pete said. He knew this had brought up all those old feelings for his partner. "Well, I'll talk to him. I can't give you any guarantees," Mac said. OoO

Jim took a deep breath as he headed down the hall to where Pete's room was. Mac had told him the man wanted to see him and after a sleepless night he wanted to see Pete too. When he knocked lightly on the door and got no answer he pushed it open a little and looked inside. He saw Pete laying there with his eyes closed, he was sleeping and Jim didn't want to wake him so he started to leave.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Pete asked, opening his eyes.

"Well I thought you were asleep, I didn't want to bother you," Jim said.

"No, there is no sleep in this place. Unless your drugged. Come on in and sit down," Pete said.

Jim came through the door and took the seat across the room from Pete's bed. "You feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah I am doing some better. Mac told me what happened, you're lucky Harrison didn't smash your skull with that wrench," Pete said.

"Yeah. He probably would have if I hadn't felt someone behind me and Woods and Brinkman hadn't been coming out at the time. Listen...what happened to you...I'm sorry. I wish it had been me like Harrison planned," Jim said. He looked down as he said it.

Pete was touched because he knew Jim was speaking from the heart. "Jim, it wasn't your fault. This Harrison is a nut, he wanted to servely injure or kill us both because his brother shot at us and wanted to kill us and you shot him. You protected us, you did your job and the right thing. I know that you feel guilty, I understand that guilt, I've been through it a few times, you know that. But blaming yourself for what happened to me is foolish," he explained.

Jim looked over at him as he spoke, taking in every word. "I guess your right. It's just hard to forget what I did, it was hard then and bringing it back up, it's hard now," he said.

"I know," Pete said. They shared a silence for a few moments. "I want to thank you for not giving up. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here right now," he said.

"I knew you were in the park. I could just feel it," Jim said.

"Well thanks for being stubborn and following your gut," Pete smiled.

"Well, I had this training officer that taught me hunches pay off sometimes," Jim grinned. He felt relieved now that he had talked to Pete.

Pete gave a half smile. "I am glad you learned something from him."

"The only thing about him is that he never lets me drive," Jim complained.

"I tell you what, when we are both healed up I'll let you drive," Pete said.

"Really?" Jim asked, smiling.

"Sure. You can back the unit out of the parking place at the station," Pete said.

Jim laughed.

THE END.


End file.
